All a Bir-r-r-d is a 1950 Looney Tunes short directed by I. Freleng.
Title[]
The title is an adaptation of the familiar train conductor's call, "All aboard!"
Plot[]
A train pulls into the station in a town called Gower Gulch, where Tweety's owner says goodbye to him and entrusts him to the care of a conductor (whose face is never seen) in the baggage car.
After the train pulls out of the station, Tweety sings his signature song (that would be used into the opening of "Canary Row" and "Putty Tat Trouble"):
- I'm a tweet wittle bird in a diwded tage,
- Tweety's my name, but I don't know my age.
- I don't have to wowwy and dat is dat,
- I'm tafe in here fwom dat ol' puddy tat.
Tweety notices Sylvester in the cage next to his and gives his catchline, "I tawt I taw a puddy tat!" He looks again to make sure. "I did! I did! I did taw a puddy tat!" Sylvester then opens the small door of his cage and extends his paw to tap on the door of Tweety's cage. Tweety answers, and as Sylvester tries to grab him, the vigilant conductor swats his paw with a cane. The conductor hangs Tweety's cage on a hook in the ceiling to keep him safe and sound and warns Sylvester to behave.
As soon as the conductor leaves the car, Sylvester proceeds to stack various articles of baggage to reach Tweety's cage. When Sylvester tries to grab Tweety again, Tweety finds the emergency cord and pulls it, causing the train to screech to an instant halt and sending Sylvester sailing through the air across several cars and into the engine's furnace. Sylvester quickly leaps out and runs back to the baggage car, and as he angrily stalks Tweety, Tweety pulls the cord again, restarting the train and sending Sylvester through the air into a garbage can lid that Tweety has found. Sylvester then starts chasing Tweety, but the conductor interrupts the chase and orders Sylvester back into his cage.
Sylvester is in his cage next to a bulldog, who starts growling at him. Annoyed, Sylvester shouts "Aaaaaaah, shaddup!" and whacks the bulldog with an umbrella, but Hector keeps growling. At that moment, the train is approaching an incline and as it ascends, Sylvester slides into the bulldog, who punches him and sends him into the wall. Sylvester slides back down as the train continues to climb, and the bulldog punches him again. As Sylvester starts sliding down yet again, the train starts moving down the incline, sending Sylvester sliding back to the wall and making him think he is safe, until he sees the bulldog sliding down toward him with fist extended to punch him again, prompting Tweety to say, "Poor puddy tat!"
Sylvester makes another attempt at stacking the baggage to reach Tweety. Tweety reaches for the emergency cord again, only to see that it has been cut and that Sylvester is holding it. But Tweety pulls it anyway, and again sends Sylvester flying. Sylvester comes back and snatches Tweety, but when he hears the conductor's footsteps, he stuffs Tweety into a mailbag and leaves it on a hook alongside the track. Sylvester smiles sheepishly as the conductor walks by, then dashes to the caboose to grab the mailbag. He reaches inside and instead of Tweety finds the bulldog, who immediately chases him away.
As Tweety is swinging inside his cage, Sylvester saws a hole in the roof and again finds the bulldog, instead of Tweety, who starts pursuing Sylvester atop the train. Sylvester momentarily eludes the bulldog by ducking into a space between two cars, then both start running in the opposite direction. As Sylvester prepares to knock the bulldog out with a club, the train heads into a tunnel, slamming Sylvester in the face into the bridge above it.
The train finally returns to Gower Gulch station, where Sylvester, disguised as Tweety's "mommy", gets out of a taxi and rushes to the baggage car to claim him. The conductor hands him the cage, which is covered, and Sylvester hurries back to the taxi with the cage. As the taxi drives away, Sylvester uncovers the cage, revealing the bulldog inside the cage instead of Tweety! The taxi pauses at a mile marker post, and the bulldog rips it out and pummels Sylvester with it as the taxi speeds along the road. As Tweety is observing this from the caboose, he sadly says, "Uh-oh, da puddy tat's dot anudda pwaymate! It's donna be awfwy wonesome fwom here to Pasadena."
Musical Cues[]
The instrumental theme used to underscore the motion of the train is "On the 5:15".
Availability[]
Streaming[]
Censorship[]
- The version of this cartoon that aired on ABC as part of The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show cut the part where Sylvester is thrown through the coaches of the train, lands into the engine's furnace, and jumps out with his tail on fire.[2] The edited version aired from 1994 until the show's end in 2000; prior to those dates, this cartoon aired uncut.
Goofs[]
- The baggage car in which Sylvester and Tweety are riding changes positions during the journey. In closeups, it will be either third, fourth, or fifth behind the engine. In long shots, it is completely absent. Only coach cars appear.
- In closeups, the train's engine carries the No. 651 in some shots and No. 814 in others. In some long shots, it has no number.
- The coal tender has at times the No. 99 on it, or no number at all. Other times it has the letters "S.P. & Q.R."
- In long shots, the coach cars sometimes appear with the letters "S.P.Q.R." on them. In closeups, this changes to "SouthEast & Western."
- Why a train going from Gower Gulch to Pasadena would return to Gower Gulch before heading to Pasadena remains a mystery.
Notes[]
- This cartoon marks Tweety's first appearance in the Looney Tunes series, after eight years of being exclusive to the Merrie Melodies series.
- The scene where Sylvester tries hitting the bulldog with a club, only to crash into a tunnel, was reused in "Half-Fare Hare", with Bugs, Ralph and Ed.
- This cartoon was used in The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special, running along with the plot of Bugs Bunny trying to escape Detective Elmer Fudd.
- The engine on the train is a 4-4-4 (four leading wheels, four driving wheels, and four trailing wheels), called the "Reading" type, since the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad was the first to use it.
- This is the first cartoon where Tweety sings his signature song, which would appear again in "Room and Bird" (1951), as well as the opening credits of both "Canary Row" (1950) and "Putty Tat Trouble" (1951). Tweety would sing this song again with remodified lyrics in "Tweet Tweet Tweety" (1951).
- On all European PAL TV broadcasts of the cartoon, such as the Italian TV station Mediaset Italia 1 and the French TV station Canal+ Family, for some odd reason on the English Audio Track the 1946-1955 Looney Tunes ending music cue is replaced by the 1955-1964 Merrie Melodies ending music cue, though on the foreign language dub tracks the original ending music cue is retained. A similar audio error also occurs in European PAL TV broadcasts of "Who's Kitten Who?" (1952).[3]
- As is the case with most cartoons featuring backgrounds by Paul Julian, several in-jokes can be seen throughout this cartoon:
- Box cars with the names of Friz Freleng's crew appear, such as "Champin", "Ross", "Frizby", and "Pratt".
- A package with Mel Blanc's name on it is in the baggage car. It is addressed to "Fred Fraling", presumably a spoonerism of Friz Freleng.
- Another package is addressed to "C. Martin Jones", a reference to Chuck Jones.
- Freleng's name appears again on a trunk that is on its way to "Pratt Falls, WI".
- A label on a green case reads "Tedd Pierce", who wrote this cartoon.
Gallery[]
TV Title Cards[]
References[]
Tweety Cartoons | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
1942 | A Tale of Two Kitties | |||
1944 | Birdy and the Beast | |||
1945 | A Gruesome Twosome | |||
1947 | Tweetie Pie | |||
1948 | I Taw a Putty Tat | |||
1949 | Bad Ol' Putty Tat | |||
1950 | Home, Tweet Home • All a Bir-r-r-d • Canary Row | |||
1951 | Putty Tat Trouble • Room and Bird • Tweety's S.O.S. • Tweet Tweet Tweety | |||
1952 | Gift Wrapped • Ain't She Tweet • A Bird in a Guilty Cage | |||
1953 | Snow Business • Fowl Weather • Tom Tom Tomcat • A Street Cat Named Sylvester • Catty Cornered | |||
1954 | Dog Pounded • Muzzle Tough • Satan's Waitin' | |||
1955 | Sandy Claws • Tweety's Circus • Red Riding Hoodwinked • Heir-Conditioned | |||
1956 | Tweet and Sour • Tree Cornered Tweety • Tugboat Granny | |||
1957 | Tweet Zoo • Tweety and the Beanstalk • Birds Anonymous • Greedy for Tweety | |||
1958 | A Pizza Tweety-Pie • A Bird in a Bonnet | |||
1959 | Trick or Tweet • Tweet and Lovely • Tweet Dreams | |||
1960 | Hyde and Go Tweet • Trip for Tat | |||
1961 | The Rebel Without Claws • The Last Hungry Cat | |||
1962 | The Jet Cage | |||
1964 | Hawaiian Aye Aye | |||
2011 | I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat |